Paris 2024: USA get Bronze in Men’s Skiff

Marseille, France (August 2, 2024) – The Men’s Skiff is one of 10 Sailing events held at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Using the 49er equipment, 20 teams competed in the 12-race Opening Series on July 28-31, with the top 10 advancing to the single, double-points Medal Race on August 1. When light air prevailed that day, the race was postponed to today to finalize the cumulative scores. Here’s the final report:

For all competition reports, click here.

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Diego Botin and Florian Trittel (ESP) fulfilled a lifelong dream by mastering the Men’s Skiff to become Olympic champions.

The Spanish pair sailed impressively throughout the regatta, finishing top of the Opening Series by a narrow five-point margin. Botin and Trittel had not won an individual race heading into the decisive Medal Race, but they saved their best for last, dominating the fleet in an exceptional show on the water to cross the line first.

New Zealand’s Isaac McHardie and William McKenzie followed in the footsteps of fellow countrymen and Tokyo 49er silver medalists Peter Burling and Blair Tuke, placing second overall. The Kiwis wrapped up the silver medal with an important third placed finish in the Medal Race, which saw them overtake Ireland’s Robert Dickson and Sean Waddilove.

The Irish crew began the day in second, but dropped to fourth overall after an early crossing of the start line meant they had to restart the Medal Race.

USA’s Ian Barrows and Hans Henken, entering today in fourth, benefited from the shift in positions, managing to secure bronze after a brilliant fourth in the final sail.

“It’s a dream come true,” Botin said. “After years of putting the work in with the best team, with our families here, it doesn’t get any better.”

Trittel added, “Staying focused has been one of the key factors for these two days of trying to get the Medal Race in. We knew what we wanted, which was to do the best Medal Race we could, to win that gold medal. That made us stay very focused, we had a clear game plan and I think we managed to execute it almost perfectly.”

New Zealand – Silver
“What a feeling. No words can describe this,” admitted McHardie. “This is something we’ve worked really hard for in the last seven years, so to come away with a silver medal for New Zealand is incredible. We’ve put a lot of time and effort into playbooks and routines in Marseille which has paid dividends.”

McKenzie added, “The first beat was perfect sailing. You couldn’t really ask for better conditions than that. It made for an awesome race.”

United States – Bronze
“Ian and I have been training for the past five years for this and we knew our chances were to go for bronze or silver,” said Henken. “Putting ourselves in medal contention and going into that last race was what we wanted.

“A lot of things had to go our way, but we also had to execute at the highest level and we were able to get both today, and that feels amazing.

“We had an excellent start, you can’t ask for anything better, going full speed. We had to defend the Swiss all the way to the finish line which wasn’t easy to do.”

Barrows added, “I’m speechless, I still can’t believe it. I’m really happy, especially for Hans as he’s been doing this for a really long time. Our team is amazing and we couldn’t have done it without each and every one of them.”

To watch the video replay, click here.

Final Results:
1. Diego Botin/ Florian Trittel (ESP), 70 points
2. Isaac McHardie/ William McKenzie (NZL), 82
3. Ian Barrows/ Hans Henken (USA), 88
17. Will Jones/ Justin Barnes (CAN), 142

Event details – Results – Notice Board

Source: World Sailing